Case Number 02297

THE OUTER LIMITS: SEASON ONE

The Charge

"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to
adjust the picture; we are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it
louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune
it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal; we will control the vertical.
We can roll the image...make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur,
or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will
control all that you see and hear. We repeat; there is nothing wrong with your
television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about
to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to...the
outer limits."

Opening Statement

On September 16, 1963, a television series entitled The Outer Limits
debuted on the ABC network. For two years, it would entertain and thoughtfully
provoke viewers intelligent enough to appreciate its, for the most part,
finely-written and well-acted episodes. The series owed its initial acceptance
by the network to the prior success of The Twilight Zone, but The
Outer Limits was no clone of that fine series. It was more focused on hard
science fiction than fantasy and it had the benefit of a full hour for each
program to develop characters and plot lines more fully. Unfortunately, as with
all really good science fiction shows, there were not enough perceptive viewers
to enable the series to persist as long as it deserved. Subsequently, the series
did very well in syndication and in the 1990s spawned a new series of shows
under The Outer Limits title. While commercially successful, the new
series lacked the artistic quality and thoughtful content of the original for
the most part. Fortunate then are we to have the first full season of the
original series now available on DVD from MGM.

Facts of the Case

The complete 1963-64 first season of The Outer Limits, consisting of
32 episodes is presented. The episode titles and principal players are:

The Evidence

One of the things that really marked the first season of The Outer
Limits was the consistent quality of its episodes. I'm not talking here
about its special effects, which were rudimentary in many cases compared to what
we're used to nowadays, but about the high standard of the scripts and the
efforts of both cast and crew that went into turning them out as
smartly-directed, well-acted, and generally good-looking short movies. On some
occasions, they were reminiscent of the better B-movies from the 1930s and
1940s, with the exception being their usually more-limited casts.

Part of the consistency was due to the principals of the production crew --
people like producer Joseph Stefano and executive producer Leslie Stevens who
also doubled as scriptwriter and director from time to time. They also had the
good sense to hire experienced directors, maybe not ones recognized as being at
the very top of the craft, but Hollywood veterans such as Byron Haskin, John
Brahm, and Robert Florey, who knew how to get the most out of what was available
to them. Gerd Oswald, though not possessed of quite the same degree of
experience, had the same capability.

Looking back at the series now, it is amazing how many well-known lead and
character actors lent their talents to the series -- both well-known at the
time, as well as others who were little-known but have since gone on to fine
careers. Virtually every episode featured one such person, from Cliff Robertson
to Donald Pleasance, Robert Duvall, Martin Sheen, Martin Landau, Vera Miles,
David McCallum, George Macready, Stephen McNally, Signe Hasso, Ralph Meeker,
Ruth Roman, Miriam Hopkins, and so on.

As suggested above, the themes of the series' various episodes tended to
favour hard science fiction with concepts such as spacecraft, time travel, and
futuristic machines being common. With these as background, the interaction
between human being and alien was a favourite thrust, as often sympathetic to
the alien as not. Everyone familiar with the series has their own favourites
among the first season's episodes. Indicated above are mine (asterisked in the
"Facts of the Case" section). There are actually 17 that I've noted,
which may seem like a lot, but then I really liked the series when it first came
out and I still do. You certainly can't go wrong with the season opener and
closer -- respectively "The Galaxy Being" and "Forms of Things
Unknown," while episodes like "The Borderland" and
"ZZZZZ" offer something a little different. "The Zanti
Misfits," "The Man Who Was Never Born," and "Nightmare"
are other episodes that most fans seem to agree on as being among their top
ones. Certainly with 32 episodes to choose from, there's something for
everyone.

MGM presents the 32 episodes on four double-sided dual-layer discs. The
transfers are 1.33:1 full frame as originally broadcast. For a 40-year old
television series, these shows look very good. There is the odd bit of debris
and speckling, but for the most part, the images are quite clear and nicely
detailed with no annoying edge enhancement. Black levels are noticeably deep and
rich. I can't imagine anyone being disappointed with the results here.

The sound is the original mono, which adequately conveys these
dialogue-driven shows. Age-related hiss or crackle is virtually non-existent.
There is no subtitling available, but English closed captioning is provided.

The only supplement is a nice 12-page insert booklet that provides
information on each episode, including a brief plot summary, cast and crew
credits, and DVD chaptering (five per episode). Sure, it would have been nice to
have more detailed information on the making of the series and on the major
personalities behind it, but we have over 27 hours of material here already, so
I think we can cut MGM some slack in this case.

Closing Statement

What a pleasure it is to have the entire first season of the original
television series The Outer Limits now available on DVD. Anybody
interested in intelligent science fiction should have no difficulty in finding
plenty to entertain them among the 27-plus hours of material that MGM has placed
on its four-disc set. I think you will be more than happy with the quality of
the transfers also. (Note: I have heard that some purchasers of this set have
had difficulty getting some discs to play or had synchronization problems. I can
only say that I found no such problems with my review set.) Recommended.

The Verdict

The court has controlled the verdict and finds the defendant not guilty.